| Popis: |
This chapter describes the arrival of famous women in the spring of 1885, drawn to New Orleans by the chance to speak to broad new audiences about the causes of their lives. Among them was Frances E. Willard (1839–1898), who arrived on March 13, 1885, for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union's (WCTU) Temperance Day meeting, which was held in the cavernous Music Hall of the Main Building. Willard as the featured speaker, and a number of campaigners in the temperance movement joined her on the platform, including “Mrs. Judge Merrick” and eleven others. By 1885, the WCTU was a respected national movement that drew female members from all areas of the country, partly because of growing public awareness of the pervasiveness and consequences of drunkenness, and because Willard was a peripatetic, persistent, and strategic leader. |
